“ We Know the Way ”: Culture – Nature Relationship and Kuleana in Disney ’ s Moana
sons into artificial persons . Such stereotypes in media may contribute to discrimination of Native Hawaiians and other minorities ( see Kopacz & Lawton , 2011 ; Parker , 2016 ; Tan , Fujioka , & Lucht , 1997 ). In typecasting groups , people treat others that are different from themselves with fixed proxies . In short , we deny them their humanity . Sniderman and Hagendoorn argue :
Prejudice ’ s power partly comes from its ability to propel people to action ; partly from its capacity to coordinate an image of the “ other .” Individuals who make up the “ other ” recede as individuals ; what remains is an image of a group .... Seeing another as the “ other ” minimizes awareness of difference among them and maximizes perceptions of difference between “ them ” and “ us .” ( 44 )
Prejudice and discrimination magnify the dangers of stereotyping , in that audiences tend to use these slanted generalizations of a group to form their knowledge of race , culture , and ethnicity .
Another consequence of negative portrayals of race in media is that people learn social , gender , race , and class roles from mass media portrayals that aid them in defining their own personal identity ( Sniderman and Hagendoorn 81 ). By comparing themselves with characters in media content and modeling-mediated behaviors and attitudes , individuals learn to become who they want to be , as well as what is deemed acceptable by society . The media culture has emerged to assist people in producing what constitutes their everyday lives . This shapes their political views and social behavior and provides them with the materials to forge their
163